Draconic
by comich12
Summary: Jason went with his dad to a science convention one Saturday.  Little did he know that the innocent machine that his dad had created would change his life forever.  An original story.  Rated T for later language.
1. The Machine

My family was always a little different. I was a straight-A, 4.0 student who never got into trouble. I was seventeen, had hazel eyes, brown hair, and I was about five foot ten inches tall. My mom was five eight, had blue eyes, and almost never lost her temper. But when she did, you did not want to be in the same room as her.

Every family has that one person that doesn't really fit in with everyone else. Well, in our family, that person was my dad. He was a kind of crazy scientist who, let's say… "specialized", in genetics. He was six one, balding, but very nice at the same time. Or, at least I thought so, until the fall of my senior year….

See, the thing is, my dad always loved doing weird science experiments. Usually, though, they didn't work. This one, however, happened to be different.

I walked down to my dad's lab one Saturday, and he looked like I couldn't have come at a better time.

"Hey, Jason!" he said to me. "Come look at this!"

"Ummmm… okay," I replied.

He led me into the back room of his lab and all that I saw was a huge metal box. It had some blinking buttons on the side and a hole in it.

"Eh?" my dad said. "Isn't it cool?"

"Umm… I don't mean to be rude, but what is it?" I said to him.

"Oh, right. Well, this machine allows humans to speak Draconic by injecting them with a tiny amount of dragon DNA."

"Huh," I said, thinking about how badly this could go wrong. "Where'd you get the DNA?"

"Oh…. ummm…," my dad said, clearly avoiding the question. "I have my suppliers. Just don't tell your mother." This usually meant that he had gotten whatever he was using illegally.

"Have you tested it yet?" I said, changing the subject.

"Oh, yeah," he replied. "It worked wonders, but the effects wore off, so if you want to see it, you'll have to test it yourself."

"Okay, I guess I could—"

"Wait! Don't do it now. Come with me to the science convention in Sacramento tomorrow. That way I have someone to test the machine, and you get your answers."

"I…..well…..I guess I could go…," I said, trying to think of any excuse I could to get out of it, and, of course, finding none.

"Great! I'll let your mother know that you're going to come along."

As he went to go and talk to my mom, I thought about what this could actually be used for. Why would Dad need a machine like this? Dragons didn't actually exist, did they?


	2. The Convention

A/N: I wrote most of this story during school, and everyone that I asked to read it said that it was awesome. So, my next test is the community. Please RNR!

On Saturday morning, my dad and I took off for the science convention. On the way there, my nerves started to get to me. I didn't know when to test the machine, or even how to do it. And on top of that, I didn't know what would happen to me after I used it. Would Dad ask me to talk in Draconic? Or did he assume that I would just do it on my own?

I asked my dad about some of the things I was worrying about.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine," were his only words to calm me down. All they ended up doing, though, was making me more and more nervous.

As we pulled up to the convention center in Sacramento, one thing was made clear to me: There were a lot of freaking people here! All that I saw was literally a sea of people waiting to get in to hear the scientists' speeches about their experiments.

We finally found a place to park, and I helped my dad haul his machine into the center. I asked him when we were supposed to give our presentation.

"Oh, I probably should've mentioned this before, but we're first," he said.

"Great," I said, when I was really thinking: Oh, shit.

"Would Professor Thomas Langstrom please go to the stage? You will be presenting in five minutes." I heard over the PA system.

"Oh, that's us," my dad said. He looked over at me and saw that I was panicking. "Don't worry. Everything will be just fine," he said.

Of course, I knew that something just had to go wrong.

"I am here to say that dragons do exist, and we now have the means…" my dad said as he started his speech. I kind of filtered him out as I contemplated what I was going to do when I was supposed to test the machine. I figured that the best thing to do was to just ask him how to test it when the time came.

"Now, my son, Jason, has kindly agreed to come all the way up here to test the machine for us and demonstrate what it can do. Jason?" my dad said, ending his speech.

"Ummm….." I whispered to my dad, "how do I test it?"

Of all the things he could've said or done right then, the worst and most unexpected was for him to just stand there and shrug. So, with my luck, that's what he did.

I looked back to the machine, and it just confused me even more. I figured out that I was supposed to put my arm inside the hole in the machine and press a few buttons so that it would inject me with the DNA. So, I put my right arm in the machine, and I pressed a few buttons.

Okay, remember how I said before that I knew something would go wrong here? Well, apparently, I was right, because the worst thing possible happened.

The machine blew up.


	3. The Aftermath

A/N: I'll try to post at least one chapter every couple of days from now on. But for now, enjoy! Remember to RNR!

BOOM!

I was blown back twenty feet to the ground off of the stage. The machine was disintegrated, and I was showered with…. Crap.

My dad had said never to let the DNA touch your skin if something were to go wrong. He had no idea what could possibly happen to someone's body if dragon DNA was absorbed into their skin.

Well…..I was about to answer him.

I got up and looked around. The whole convention center had gone into a state of panic. I turned around and saw my dad standing over by the door looking for me. Thankfully, he looked unscathed, and, strangely, he looked completely dry, too. As I walked over to my dad, I noticed that I had a large gash running down my forearm that hurt a ton.

"You okay?" my dad asked.

I showed him my gashed arm. "Does it look like I'm okay?" I asked sarcastically.

"Oh my… we've got to get you back home, now," Dad said, not even bringing up the fact that maybe I should go to a hospital for the gash on my arm.

So, we ran back to the car and made the hour-and-a-half long drive back to my house. But when we got back, I noticed that my arm was tingling, like it feels when your arm goes to sleep. I just ignored it though, because I thought that the tingling was from the huge gash in my arm.

But half an hour later, my arm was still tingling, and the gash looked kind of red around the edges. So, I went downstairs to ask my dad about it.

"Well," he said, "if your arm has been tingling like that for so long, it's probably because it's reacting to something."

"No duh, it's reacting to something!" I yelled. "I have a huge gash in my arm! Why wouldn't it be reacting to something?"

Both my parents looked at me, completely stunned. I usually never yelled at anyone, ever. I had just yelled at, of all people, my parents.

"Jason, I think I need to tell you and your mother both something," my dad said seriously. "I think your personality is beginning to change because of what happened at the science convention. The DNA from the machine absorbed into your bloodstream through that gash in your arm, and your body is changing because of it."

"Well, what's going to happen to me?" I asked.

"I don't know how your body will change yet. We'll have to wait and see if your body will even transform at all. But in the meantime, I think you—Jason!"

It was then that I passed out.


	4. The Transformation

When I woke up, I saw my parents sitting in the living room next to me, waiting for me to get up. I shifted a little on the couch, enough to let my parents know that I was awake.

"Oh, thank God you're okay!" my mom said, relieved.

"What the hell happened to me?" I asked, more to my dad than my mom.

"You passed out," my dad answered. "Your body is reacting to the dragon DNA being introduced into your system by trying to incorporate it into your DNA pattern."

"Ummm… English, please?" I said sarcastically.

"Your body is trying to change to make the dragon DNA part of your system," he replied. "I don't know what is going to happen to you, and I won't know unless we let the DNA become part of you."

"So, what you're saying is that I am going to start transforming into a dragon, and you aren't going to do anything about it?"

"Well, not necessarily. We're going to keep you at home for a few days, just to see whether your body will transform or not."

"You're going to keep me at home? What are you going to tell the school?"

"We'll probably tell them that you got sick or something like that. We just need to keep you here so that you don't reveal this to anyone."

"Oh, so now it's not because of me that I'm staying home? It's just because of your reputation?" I said.

"No, Jason. That's not what I meant. If this were to get out, I could be thrown in jail, or worse." He sounded like I was testing his patience.

"Why can't I just go to school and be with my friends?"

"Because you are changing into a creature that kills humans! If you get pushed too far, you could endanger the lives of everyone at your school!"

"Dad, relax. I won't snap. Everyone pretty much ignores me at school, anyway."

I realized then that my arm that had been gashed open at the convention was feeling stiff. I pulled it out from under my blanket, just to see if anything had happened.

"Oh, my…" my mom said.

"Well, that's interesting," my dad said calmly. It looked like my gash had healed over, but then I realized that there was something inhuman about how it had healed.

"Is this the kind of thing you were talking about, Dad?"

"Yes, Jason. This is exactly what I was talking about."

My arm had grown bright red dragon scales.

Shit.


	5. The Fight

"You are definitely not going to school now," my dad said.

"Yeah, I kind of figured," I said sarcastically. "What if I—"

"No," my dad said firmly. "You are not going back to school like this, no matter how well you think you can hide this."

"Now you're just being stubborn, Dad," I shot back at him.

"Don't you dare try and turn this around on me, Jason. There is no way in hell that I will let you go back to school tomorrow with dragon scales covering your arm."

"Oh, come on, Dad. You're being way too paranoid about this. I have a good way that I can cover this up."

"Really? Well, it had better be damn near foolproof."

"Well… it's not quite foolproof…"

"Then you're staying here tomorrow."

"Tom," my mom finally said to my dad, "let him go. He needs to have some fun and be with his friends. If it doesn't go well tomorrow, then we can keep him here however much longer we need to."

"I… but Jess… oh, alright," my dad said. "But you need to make sure that your arm stays completely covered all day."

"Alright, alright," I said.

"Do you understand me?" he asked.

I started walking away from him without answering his question, which was a huge mistake on my part.

He grabbed my arm and repeated, "Do you understand me?"

I felt a surge of rage, and I completely lost control. My dad had grabbed my human arm, which was a mistake on his part, because I whipped around, inhumanly fast, and punched him in the jaw.

He flew back and hit the wall, and I was frozen there in shock.

"My God…" I said under my breath.

I turned to my mom and saw that she was holding back tears. She looked at me, and then ran over to my dad, who was unconscious on the ground.

I stood there for another moment. What the hell had happened to me to cause me to do that to, of all people, my dad?

My mom was crouched over my dad, in tears. I couldn't take it any longer.

I turned and ran up to my room, slammed the door, and collapsed on my bed. I looked at my arm, which was mostly covered by dark black dragon scales.

"Why the hell did this have to happen to me?" I asked no one. I ran my hand over the scales and sighed.

I then rolled over and fell asleep.


	6. School Talk

**A/N: So, with this posting, I am adding a new chapter, as well as revising chapter 5. You might want to re-read it so you don't miss anything. Make sure you remember to R&R!**

I woke up and looked at my clock. It read 10:17 PM.

Awesome. I had just punched out my dad, come upstairs, and slept for four hours.

I got out of bed and looked at my arm, just to see whether I had been dreaming or not. Sure enough, the black scales were still there. So, I went downstairs to go and apologize to my dad for breaking his jaw.

I walked toward the living room and saw my dad sitting on the couch with an ice pack held against his jaw, where I had hit him. My mom was sitting next to him, holding a bottle of what looked to be painkillers.

"Dad?" I said as I walked in. "I'm sor—"

"It's okay, Jason. You don't need to apologize," he said before I could finish. "Your brain is altering your personality and making it more like a dragon and less like a human. Basically, you're getting dragon's instincts."

"And that's why I hit you," I said, realizing it now.

"Exactly. Your new instincts made you think that I was attacking you, and they made you react accordingly."

"So… are you going to let me go to school tomorrow?" I asked, hoping for a yes.

"I think that you should be able to keep this under wraps, so… yes, I will."

"Yes!" I yelled excitedly.

"But, you have to make sure that you have a good plan for keeping that arm covered tomorrow. We want to make sure that you and I don't get any weird questions."

"Alright, Dad. I know."

"You'd better get to bed. You don't want to be exhausted from all that went on today."

"Alright. Good night, guys."

"'Night, Jason," both my parents said at the same time.

I walked back upstairs, feeling more tired than I did a few minutes before. I looked down at my arm again, and I thought that I noticed a small hole. It looked like some sort of injection point. I didn't think much of it, though, because I was already asleep when I hit the sheets of my bed.

"Everything's going just how we thought it would," the voice said. "The DNA is taking to the boy's system like magic. We'll soon have the weapon we need."


	7. More Troubles

"Now, class, why was the Vietnam War important to the US?"

Normally, my hand would've been the first one up to answer that question, but since I had "hurt" my arm over the weekend, I kept my hand down. So far, I had made it through my first three hours without anything happening to my arm. When I got to lunch, however, that changed pretty quickly.

I sat down where I usually ate lunch: back in the far corner of the cafeteria by myself. My arm had been feeling weird for a while, like it did the first time I transformed. But this time was different. My first transformation had been painless, but….

My arm started to spike with pain, and I could feel my fingers and hand starting to go numb. I quickly dumped my tray and took off running down the hallway outside of the cafeteria.

Where I ran right into my girlfriend, Andrea.

"What's up?" she asked without missing a beat.

"I…. ummmm…." I said, stalling until I could think of something to say.

"Oh, c'mon, Jason," she said. "You can tell me."

I sighed. "Alright, come-Aahhhh!" I yelled out in pain.

"Jason! What's going on?" Andrea said, panicked.

"I'll explain later, just—ahhh!—go get your car and take me home!"

"What? Why?"

"Just go!"

As she ran off, the pain in my arm was getting even worse. I went out to the lobby of the school to wait for Andrea, clutching my arm in pain. When I saw her pull up, I took off running to get to her car.

I jumped in and said, "Go!"

She hit the gas, and we took off down the road.

"Yes, yes, just as I planned it," the voice said. "He will show this to his girlfriend, and we will get her, too. Just wait. Everything will become clear soon."

"What do you mean by that? What did you do to my son?" my dad yelled.


End file.
